# Documentation update needed: vars\_files no longer expands 'facts' variables in paths since 1.5.4 **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Tags:** ubuntu\ **Created:** [May 14, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/documentation-update-needed-vars-files-no-longer-expands-facts-variables-in-paths-since-1-5-4/15235 "2014-05-14T17:12:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paddy\_Doyle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Paddy\_Doyle](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Paddy_Doyle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 5:12pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/documentation-update-needed-vars-files-no-longer-expands-facts-variables-in-paths-since-1-5-4/15235/1 "2014-05-14T17:12:07Z")
Hi, The 1.5.4 change to stop expanding ‘facts’ variables in ‘vars\_files’ paths has just hit me (I know I’m behind, running of Scientific Linux 6 so updates are slow!). I’d just like to point out that the web documentation needs to be updated: specifically the ‘vars\_files’ example in the ‘Conditional Imports’ section still uses “{{ansible\_os\_family}}” in the path: [http://docs.ansible.com/playbooks\_variables.html#conditional-imports](http://docs.ansible.com/playbooks_variables.html#conditional-imports) I’d like to also ask for some advice on how to update my playbooks now to deal with the new behaviour. I know there’s a note saying that the feature isn’t used that often, and points you to the ‘group\_by’ module, but to be honest the examples on the group\_by page make no sense to me ([http://docs.ansible.com/group\_by\_module.html](http://docs.ansible.com/group_by_module.html)). This is what I have (and worked prior to 1.5.4): vars\_files: - …/vars/global.yml - …/vars/{{ansible\_distribution}}.yml (and so I have a ‘vars/Ubuntu.yml’ and ‘vars/Scientific.yml’ etc where I put a couple of OS-specific vars). I guess I’ll need to reorganise things and maybe use {{ansible\_distrubution}} more, but if anyone has an example of how they migrated, I’d appreciate it. Thanks, Paddy ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/documentation-update-needed-vars-files-no-longer-expands-facts-variables-in-paths-since-1-5-4/15235/2 "2014-05-14T22:18:22Z")
No update is ever needed for a bug - we fix the bug. In this case, this should already be addressed by 1.6. The current released version of Ansible is 1.6.1, and since you are using Scientific Linux, I highly recommend using EPEL to get the latest Ansible - it’s good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Paddy\_Doyle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Paddy\_Doyle](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Paddy_Doyle)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 8:16am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/documentation-update-needed-vars-files-no-longer-expands-facts-variables-in-paths-since-1-5-4/15235/3 "2014-05-15T08:16:52Z")
Hi Michael, > No update is ever needed for a bug - we fix the bug. > > In this case, this should already be addressed by 1.6. Ah ok, so the behaviour has been reverted in 1.6, and facts variables now work again in vars\_files paths? I looked through the commit logs but I couldn’t see any mention of the revert. > The current released version of Ansible is 1.6.1, and since you are using Scientific Linux, I highly recommend using EPEL to get the latest Ansible - it’s good stuff. Yeah, I am grabbing from EPEL – they’re still only on 1.5.5. Thanks, Paddy ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2014, 11:29am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/documentation-update-needed-vars-files-no-longer-expands-facts-variables-in-paths-since-1-5-4/15235/4 "2014-05-15T11:29:03Z")
“I looked through the commit logs but I couldn’t see any mention of the revert.” Shouldn’t assume it was a revert.